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♪ ♪ howard: who's hunter biden's own voice played in a delaware courtroom that plumed the depths of his past addiction. the media are giving the trial heavy cover act as they should, but with no one coming out to talk to reporters, it feels very remoteful but it's an undeniably tawdry tale with lurid testimony from the widow of beau biden who became romantically involved with hunter after her husband's death. the argument in this trial boils down to this seemingly semantic question, whether hunter biden was doing drugs when he signed a gun purchase form and said he wasn't or just abusing alcohol at the tile. fortunately for doj special counsel, hunter biden recorded the audio, book of his memoir, so the jury not to hear his firsthand account. >> crack takes you into the darkest recesses of your soul as well as the darkest corners of every community. i had done it everywhere it had been in the last few months.

i could get off a plane in timbuktu and score a bag of crack. i hardly held myself of above them. i was just as much a part of the depravity as they were. i was smoking crack every 15 minutes. howard: is he sealing his legal fate or drawing sympathy for a recovering addict? i'm howard kurtz and this is "mediabuzz." ♪ if. howard: the media have one defining feature of the coverage that a matches the trump trial, the same polarizing views. >> i just hate how the media talks about the biden family and how this is a beautiful, special relationship. the he's a crackhead. he pays for prostitutes. he squirrels out offal a moan first squirrel out of child support. the guy is a wretched human being. >> he had the handgun for 11 days, he now faces 25 years in prison. it is a prosecution that is so is rare, so out there, so

draconian -- >> this may be a jury nullification defense; that is, they're hoping that the jury will be sympathetic over his struggle with addiction. >> the judge overseeing hunter biden's two cases are trump appointees, and yet you don't hear president biden attacking them as a conflicted. >> the evidence against hunter, of course, is overwhelming. the case should have been brought fife years ago a. >> republicans saying the doj is corrupt. they're prosecuting the president's son right now. howard: joining us now to analyze the coverage, ben domenech, editor at large of the spectator and a fox news contributor, and in san diego, laura fink, founder of rebel communications. ben, is this the mirror image of the trump trial except that the press is largely thick to the defendant in this case -- sympathetic and say, come orange the guy's a are recovering addict, give him a break. [laughter] >> to a certain extent, what you're saying is true in terms

of it's a mirror image in terms of the reaction, but i would actually argue hunter's crime in this case is far more clear cut. it's a document that you have to sign, you know, under penalty of, you know, perjury in terms of going down the list, everybody has to do this when they're buying a firearm, you know? and in his case hunter obviously lied on that form when he said that he was not, you know, addicted the any drugs, when he said that the he was able to purchase this weapon. and that's something that the i think, you know, the irony of this is actually that joe biden himself signed a law into effect that made the penalty for this type of crime higher than it was in the past historically. in trump's a case, you know, the documents involved in that were all, you know, business records that were never supposed to be public. it's a completely different standard. but i do think one thing is career here in terms of the coverage that this has received. the number one thing that i think we've learned over the a past week is that, essentially, people really didn't know the degree to which this had gone

off the rails as much as it had. i think there were a lot of people who were learning these things about a hunter biden for the first time whether you were reading it on the pages of "the daily mail" or something that goes viral or not. and these are things that a lot of conservatives have known for a long time. they've read miranda devine's book, heavy been paying attention. but because this kind of took it into the public arena for the first time to that degree, i'm curious what the reaction is going to be from voters. howard: laura, hunter biden's defense strike me as almost absurdly narrow in the sense that, of course i was a crack addict, but not that week or that month. is that what this has come down to? >> i think he's relying on the burden of proof of prosecutors. one with thing that we have to highlight here is it'ses so so rare to prosecute a lead felony conviction of possession of a firearm. the charges that punt -- hunter is facing. hay don't prosecute these cases. where that was the lead charge,

35,000 case over the course of last year, and .02% of them were these types of cases where it involved, you know, drug use. usually that's the case when they are trying the catch a felon committing a different crime with the firearm. and if so they -- there are other crimes associated with it. again, they're throwing the book at him, and that is clear. and i think people understand that with the fact that we have a trump prosecutor leading this charge. and, again, you don't hear bind saying, joe biden, saying anything about this. and i think that's incredibly consistent with his view that the rule of law needs to proceed regardless of your feelings about the circumstances. howard: well, ben, president biden during his trip to normandy telling abc's david mover that he will not -- david muir that he will not pardon his son no matter what happens. it was a one-word answer a, yes. he's ruling it out. trump and his supporters, since you brought up the earlier case,

say the stormy daniels would never have been brought were he not the leading presidential candidate. could the same be said about hunter biden? yes, probably undoubtedly bought the handgun illegally but never took it out of the box and had it for 111 days, so there is --11 crimes. there is no second crime where he shot up a bank. >> i completely concede to lauer a's -- laura's point that most of the time these claims are part of a broader criminal case, going after somebody who did something else and you include this as part of the charge. but the distinction i would make here is just kind of the blatant nature of his crime, meaning that, you know, if the president's son or in this case, you know, the vice president's son, you know, at the time was -- the former vice president away with this and then literally write a book where he talks about it, you know, have something as blatant as within 24 hours -- [laughter] seeking out crack and that kind of thing, you know, what kind of

standard does that set for the american people of just sort of saying that he's being held the a completely different standard? howard: he can get crack in timbuktu do. >> father-in-law, apparently, one of those many skills he has along with his artistic work. but i do think what we actually see here is, you know, to the degree it's similar with trump, the prominence and the public nature of their crime in the sense that people are aware of it leads people to go after it. and in the case of the stormy daniels hush up money trial, i think that was simply a case of partisan targeting where al venn bragg saw it fitting his purposes to announce before he even had the job that he was going to go after him for as many things as he could. howard: laura, hunter biden, as you know, already pleaded guilty to gun charges and tax charges, tax evasion. there's going to be a second trial on that. but service it was in that sweetheart deal that the9 judge threw out because there was no

jail time. doesn't that diminish his chances of beating the rap here? >> it certainly could impact it, and it also shows what a pickle he's in as a result of being the president's son. we sort of see it working in reverse here. the challenge really is with hunter biden, is there prosecutorial discretion and does it fit. i mean, so you're working on -- so we're throwing felony charges at him and talking about jail time on a crime that is not generally prosecuted. at the very least, the punishment should be proportional to the crime. that is the entire job of prosecutors and judges, and so we'll see as this case proceeds if whether his last name becomes such a debt detriment to him. certainly are, he should be with held accountable, but the punishment should be proportional to the crime can. no one was hurt in these incidents and, certainly, he needs to face the charges but let's be reasonable. and the inconsistency, of course, on the right with respect to this issue is wild. we talk about the entire justice system being rigged and joe biden is supposed to be the

grand puppeteer. the fact of the matter is that's not resonating with voters because it just doesn't make a lot of sense. there was a jury of his peers that convicted donald trump on 34 charges was the teacher, the nurse, the respiratory therapist, the banker all looked at the evidence that was presented to them regardless the political way in which it got there. they believed uniformly that the these chimes -- crimes took place. it was an unequivocal verdict -- >> i have to disagree with you there because i think if, in fact, voters -- especially independent voters or -- believe that this was a situation that was completely aboveboard and not motivated by partisan interests, then i think you would have seen a dramatic shift in terms of the poll evidence after this conviction. you would have seen the kind of shift that a lot of people predicted based on prior polls about the hypothetical if the former president was shifted.

it's been something within the margin of error, a blip really in terms of any kind of negativity associated with the former period of time. and that, to me, is an indictment of the idea that people would automatically believe this was aboveboard and not a partisan attack on the former president. howard: i want to talk about the laptop because images have been introduced at trial as evidence. we'll show one here. and, of course, at the teem, in fact, during the second debate bait against donald trump, joe baden said, oh, this is russian disinformation, the laptop wasn't real. many in the media said the laptop wasn't real, npr refused to cover the story. welsh it's the government's, you know with, key exhibit here. why on earth did hunter request just not plead guilty, expose himself to penalty -- i think this was a presidential attempt by the special counsel to sea this is going to get really ugly for you, maybe you ought to take the plea. any insight on that? >> you know, i'm not in the room

with hunter and his lawyers. obviously, we're talking about the outside pressure being a factor in a way of most other criminal cases that it would not be. i think the he's got a series of difficult choice, baa if you co, bad if you don't. and because of his drug addiction, this is something that he's going to have to be accountable for. it is the difficult because there is not truly a path that would set him free. it would, it's clear that he did purchase the gun, it is clear that he has had, you know, drug problems. what the response of the jury is, is -- will determine his future because his father certainly isn't weighing in. democrats certainly aren't trying to impugn the justice system in his defense, so he stands alone right now. howard: more on that in a moment. when we come back, donald trump and his allies sending sharp signals on retribution in his second term. ♪ muck ♪ if.uto ♪

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howard: some of donald trump's allies want republican us investigating democrats right now. >> -- every republican d.a. starting every information, they need to right now. howard: the subject came up, as it has before, when the former president sat town with sean hannity. >> people are claiming you want relately -- retribution. people are claiming you want what has happened to you done to democrats. would you to that ever? >> look, what's happened to me has never happened in this country before, and it has to stop because for finish. >> wait a minute. i want to hear that again. it has to stop. >> well, it does have to stop because we're not going to have a country. when this election is over based on what they've done, i would have every right to go after them. and it's easy because it's joe

biden, and you see all the criminality. all of the money that's going into the family and him. all of this money from china, from russia, from ukraine. howard: trump was more explicit in his sit-down with dr. phil. >> well, revenge does take time, i will say that. >> it does. >> and sometimes revenge can be justified. let's be honest, sometimes it can. howard: ben, donald trump didn't say he would order such retribution, but at the same time he said it would be easy to do. sort of a mixed message? >> it is a mixed message, but i think one of the things we have to understand here is donald trump's personal if motivations regarding going after democrats in this way do not speak for necessarily the motivations of republicans across the country and especially, you know, republican prosecutors, or attorneys general, etc. i think that you're actually going to theme crack down in terms of their own interest. in other words, it's going to benefit them politically to go

after various or democrats in ways that i do not think that we have seen before. much in the same way that the it benefited letitia james, alvin bragg, it's benefited the various people who have targeted donald trump, to say that they were going to do that when they were running for their office. i think we're folk so to see a similar thing happen within the republican party. howard: laura, if you believe that -- like trump does, then aren't they prolow lowering themselves by employ or toking saying they are going to employ the very same tactics? >> it's deeply dangerous to say that,s to say that you're going after your political enemies. it's deeply dangerous to democracy. look, when -- not to mention to your political career. i don't know that i agree with ben that the political benefits -- you have to have evidence. what we see in the court of law, you have to have -- >> they literally promised when they were running. >> this is all -- i'm sorry, i didn't hear that. the -- >> i said they promised when

they were running, i'm going to get him. that's, like, a promise letitia james made to help her career, you know? it clearly benefited them. >> but even if that, even just sort of saying, okay, ben, sure, that's exactly what happened, which i don't, i would say this: the juries looked at that evidence, a grand jury looked at the ed -- evidence, a jury of trump's peers looked at the evidence. at every stage there are processes where the judicial system requires a level of evidence and that there are checks. republicans that want to go after political enemies better make sure heavy got some criminals on their hands. we already see the justice system working in that regard it. we see it with bob menendez, henry cuellar. democrats not saying a peep about that a when their colleagues are under judicial scrutiny if because it's important to trust the system and to move forward. so i think you're going to see limited benefit to people who are moving forward. we saw is it with all the a voter -- >> i think they're not saying

anything about bob menendez because he's obviously guilty as hell, but that's my own opinion. [laughter] howard: even menendez gets a jury. let's concede -- let's agree for the sake of argument that you can't just completely fab ifly candidate a charge. you've got to have something there. but if, as a steven the miller we saw, former white house official, say, you know, let's right now have the assistant d.a.s, republicans go after democrats, a white house official, ben, used to tell me if trump's advisers pushed him to tone something down, just wait a cop old -- a couple days and he doweled dial it up, just like he did with dr. phil. >> i think the way host actually going to approach it is to put people in charge if he is reelected who he trusts to go after various people and to use the system to maximum advantage. in other words, to say, look, you have power within this role, i expect you to use it. if that includes targeting people who in the past might

have gotten, you know, paths because of the authority they had or the position that they held within to opposing party, that doesn't get a pass anymore. to the degree that this is actually going to result in anything, i don't know. i think it's very much up in the air. but i do think it's going to play to people's advantages if you are someone who's going to go after various folks, you know, on the other side and use that to your political sort of benefit. that's going to be something that i think we sew far more frequently in america generally. howard: you'll just be caught in this endless cycle where you don't even have to wait until the next election. democrats go after republican, republicans go after democrats and people throw up their hands and say, well, they must all be crooks. >> well,s the premise of that question suggests that joe biden has the capacity and the ability to influence i all of these prosecutions on, in various, at various state levels. it's absurd on its face. but i think the danger is donald

trump does what he says he's going to do, and there will not be guard rails in a next trump administration. all of the individuals for whether it be military leaders, folks in the justice department, he is going to plant yes men if across the board. so i do think it's dangerous that we have the potential weaponization of the justice transportation. it's, he's speaking it into truth even though there is zero evidence that it has existed thus far. howard: let's be politically correct and say yes if men or yes women. up next, the biden camp up happy with the wall street journal for saying he's losing focus behind the scenes. ♪ good soil, and you get good results. look at that! the broccoli was fantastic. that broccoli! i think some of them were six, seven pounds. these days everyone is staring at screens,

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some people saw a response as early as 2 weeks. with austedo xr, dan can stay on his mental health meds- (dan) cool hair! (vo) austedo xr can cause depression, suicidal thoughts, or actions in patients with huntington's disease. pay close attention to and call your doctor if you become depressed, have sudden changes in mood, or have suicidal thoughts. don't take if you have liver problems, are taking reserpine, tetrabenazine, or valbenazine. austedo xr may cause irregular or fast heartbeat, or abnormal movements. seek help for fever, stiff muscles, problems thinking, or sweating. common side effects include inflammation of the nose and throat, insomnia and sleepiness. ♪as you go with austedo♪ ask your doctor for austedo xr. ♪austedo xr♪ howard: time magazine ran one of those if he wins covers but with joe biden. they were reasonably hard questions, reason by cogent answers, not much on a second

term agenda except finish the job. that was quickly overshadowed by a controversial "wall street journal" story behind closed doors, biden shows signs of slipping. that is based mainly on republicans such is as ex-speaker kevin mccarthy, others anonymously saying biden sometimes zones out in meetings. laura, politico swoops in and says, well, it's kind of odd to building the story around kevin mccarthy because at the time of the debt ceiling talks, he was, mccarthy was privately telling allies in these meetings was very sharp and focused. >> that's right. and so this "wall street journal" article, oh, if i was a pr person, it would be great because it is a made for tv hit piece. you cannot exclusively rely on the opinion of people's political opponents to assess their mental acuity or anything else. they're inherently untrustworthy and, therefore, need to be

corroborated. this was lazy reporting at best and a weaponized piece at worst. the biden campaign has every right to complain about this and, you know, we see this -- this doesn't just happen to democrats. there was a florida congressman and some of his words being pair paraphrased wrongly. this happens on the right. but the headline piece in the "wall street journal"? i mean, it was wildly, it was just wildly inpresent for them to publish -- inappropriate. howard: joe biden's 81. at a money minimum, he's lost a few steps. are the media now magnifying every gaffes, or have democrats concluded they're unsure about a him? >> it's actually something we've all in washington been hearing for the past several years. this is not new. if frankly, the reaction to it surprised me partially because it's, like, welsh everybody knew this, right? everybody has heard it from, you know, not just smart democrats

and smart republicans, but, you know, just random people in media who have interviewed the guy, you know? if granted, that is a very short list. but this is the sort of thing that i think, you know, the vast majority of american voters, they don't need a "wall street journal" article to tell them. they can assess it for themselves, and a lot of them, i think, are very worried that, you know, they're gathering around a table and saying is it time to do something about this? howard: it might be late in the political game for that. nancy pelosi said she spent lots of time with the journal giving on the record anecdotes about biden being sharp and none of that got used. which suggests doesn't fit the narrative. >> it's absolutely -- it absolutely -- yeah, it doesn't fit the narrative. it does fit the narrative that this is sr. sort of out of pocket. and i'm not hanging out as republican cigar bars as ben the

is, but i think the facts of this piece didn't come out is because none if other than political opponents are saying it. it should be an easy story to get folks on the record or on background talking about it. the fact that that hasn't happened is a sign that biden's doing okay. we saw it in the state of the union, and i know in a few weeks we're going to see it in the debate. so keep smoking that cigar and talking with your friends that -- >> i am not a member of any republican cigar forward. i don't know what you're talking about -- bar. i do have to say that the white house thought it was sufficiently dangerous of a story to actually reach out to those democrats who were quoted to have them call "the wall street journal" reporters back and to give them an alternate sort of quote to use as opposed to the ones they had given originally, i think that a says a lot. howard: speaking of the debate in about two weeks, we led the show with hunter biden.

do they need to be asked about the hunter biden case? >> i think there's something in particular if they have to ask which is, jake tapper last fall made a very public and, i think, honorable -- that joe biden had not been fully truthful when it came to that laptop, describing it, obviously, as having all the hallmarks of misinformation, disinformation -- howard: of the russians. >> -- etc., relying on those intel figures. and i think it's incumbent on jake and dana to ask the question of the president, you know, do you regret making those statements knowing everything that we know now about a hunter's business? would you have phrased it differently? would you say it differently, and do you believe that that laptop now that it's been entered into evidence by our -- your own doj, do you believe it to be authentic? i think that absolutely has to be asked because no one has been able to ask that question yet, and i doubt there's going if to be another opportunity to do it.

howard: i anytime i may welcome up. ben domenech, laura fink, thanks so much. next on "mediabuzz," joe biden finally makes a move at the border, but how much do the media ya a really care? f ♪ time has passed, his risk of a second attack hasn't. mike is still living in the red. with a very high risk of another heart attack or stroke. he doesn't know with his risk factors his ldl-c (bad cholesterol) is still too high - the recommended level is below 55. are you living in the red? get in the know. learn how to get a free ldl-c test at attackheartdisease.com. everyone say, “space pod.” cheese. [door creaks open] [ominous music] (♪) [ding]

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howard: white house leaks came early fueling stories in the major papers, joe biden was going to take executive action on the border. two hours before the scheduled speech, the president signed the order shutting the border, and it was left to the network pundits to provide the details. finally, biden delivered the news that everyone already expected. >> today i'm announcing actions to bar migrants who cross our southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum. i will never demonize immigrants. i'll never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of a country. >> it's meaningless, it's a joke. everybody knows it. it has nothing to do with border security, and he doesn't need anything from congress. >> i'm so glad he decided that

he had the power that he didn't think he he had if it took him five months to figure it out. >> just five months before election day, the move could potentially alienate liberals and others already angry about a his stance on gaza. >> bide evens so-called shutdown border doesn't shut down the border at a all. it chemos catch and release. >> no a matter what the president does, he's going to get slammed. if he aches action like the one he's done today, he's labeled a traitor by the left. howard: joining us now in tampa, caroline downey, national review staff writer and fellow with the international women's forum, and here in washington, tim hogan, a democratic strategist. caroline, the media have been clamoring for year, the conservatives have been clamoring for years. what is joe biden going to do about the border. he shuts it down at least temporarily, and he's still getting havoc. >> yes, howie. biden's immigration order is too little, too late for conservatives, and honestly, too far for progressives.

the the new yorker called it harsh, axios called it a crackdown, but other outlets like "usa today" and many republicans as you just said have called it a joke. and their complaint, by, is that biden has hemmed and hawed for years that he's at the whim of congress to curb illegal immigration. but i he somehow found the executive order no -- authority to revoke the remain many mexico policy and other trump the era border control measures at the very start of his administration. i think a lot of conservatives feel gaslit by this executive order because it implicitly concedes that biden always had the power to shut down the border, he just lacked the political will until right now. even jen psaki -- howard: i was just going to say there's been enormous political pressure. i'd like to get tim in, if that's all right. he's so focused on giving the details in advance, very '80s mindset. by the time he ghei the speech, it really was all over the news, so what about a little

showmanship? >> i'm not going to criticize the rollout to, i just want to say 70% of people according to a u-gov/cbs poll, approve of this policy. i think general generally people are looking at this positively, and he couched it in a way that the i think is extremely valuable for progressives and conservatives which is there was a bipartisan bill that was supposed to get part of this done. he can't do all things. he can't get more money for border patrol agents for processing asylum seekers. it should put more pressure on congress to actually pass that bill. howard: caroline, i don't know why joe biden didn't do this six months ago, although there's still the possibility it'll be tied up in the courts, but it's the exact same legal provision that donald trump used in 2018 which ended up being blocked by the courts. and as a you were hinting at a, democratic liberals are outraged because it is the trump playbook. >> right. biden insoaked the exact same

law -- invoked the exact same law that a trump did, but that's not okay with progressives. the aclu has already sued the biden administration over this. and the thing is, howie, we do know why he didn't do this six months earlier. as i was saying before, you know, jen psaki recently admitted that this announcement was likely to try to improve biden's suffering poll numbers. they're inescapable at this point. the border crisis is very much haunting biden's electoral prospects and, again, the conservatives are very angry about this border not just because it's extremely delayed, but because we don't even know how effective it actually will be. there's so many exemptions and loopholes in it. for instance, it excludes those who enter the country through cbp1 app at ports of industry. -- entry. it does not address those who fly into the country directly and are paroled in. it's important to note. howard: just for those who don't follow out details -- all the a

details, if the number of migrants in a day exceeds 2500, the president now says he has the power to close down the border and, of course, that's a pretty high number and that's what a made this take effect immediately. tim, biden makes a point of saying, look, unlike donald trump, we're not going to separate children from families. unlike donald trump, i would never accuse immigrants of poisoning the country's blood. but it's kind of like the trump policy is a lollipop, you know, easier to go down. >> you can cite a similar provision and still have a different policy, and that's what's happening -- howard: what's different? >> i mean, for one, part ofs it is rhetoric, right? he's not saying immigrants poison our country, he's not doing a religious test as a trump wanted tad to have, determine which immigrants were allowed to come into our country. so it is a different policy. you can look at the immigration and nationality act, cite a specific provision to justify that a you're doing, but it's not the same as trump was doing. howard: caroline, i have to fault the media on this because

it seems to me they're more interested in the politics surrounding the border than the actual suffering at the border and trying to to, you know, legitimately get most of these people not to come to the u.s. in the first place which, of course, it's that asigh to lumbar which is -- asylum which is why many of the people on the left are upset. you alluded to bipartisan talks that had this kind of language, but now that a it's not being fought over politically, it seems to me the press has kind of, sort of moved on. >> well, howie, i mean, the media's playing politics, but that's largely because this is a political game. under federal law the biden administration is compelled to exclude and detain illegal immigrants that come into this country, but it's been flouting that. it has not been doing that. it's been using the dubious parole system to usher in a population that's bigger than some states. and so the media, what they're

trying to address here is that if you just zoom out national, you know, 2024 circuit, it's all about a, you know, who's the border hawk now, who's not the border hawk. and i think one thing's for sure, biden was not for years and now he's sudden suddenly pretending he is a restrictionist, and i think the jig is up. howard: i only have about 20 seconds. are the media more imimmersedded in the hunter biden case than what's happening at the border? >> i think they're interested in both for a variety of reasons. i think there's a balance there. but, yeah, i think that -- now that joe biden has involved in this problem a little bit -- solved this problem a little bi- howard: i wouldn't say solved. the georgia melodrama takes a new turn until we determine the fate of fani willis. ♪ living in glances of people i loved. and ones i didn't even know. (♪)

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♪ howard: the georgia investigation into donald trump and election fraud which has brought so much media attention to fani willis has been stopped in its tracks amid an appeal of whether the d.a. can remain on the case. fani willis won the initial case. what is the point of holding up this entire investigation against trump and his co-defendants while this is appealed? >> well, howie, obviously, fani willis' professional embarrassments are under scrutiny right now. she's part of this resistance cast of characters as my boss, rich lowry, or called it that's

leading extremely played -- flawed cases against president trump. the main theme really, howe howie, of trump's lawfare is that the ends justify the means no matter how compromised or corrupt the prosecutor or the judge in the trump hush money case and no matter how ab sured the application of the law -- absurd. fannie will his' prosecution has been irreparably tainted by her personal scandals, and she's been disgraced speck tack harley. i think the only way for the integrity to be restored to her georgia case is for her to be removed from the case which is what the last judge failed to do. howard: but, timing that was not the ruling in this earlier mini trial where her former paramore, nathan wade, was bounced out as the special prosecutor. does everything in the courts have to be delayed indefinitely?

>> for people claiming that the judicial system is weaponized against trump, he got some really good rulings last week, and it so distracts from the core of this case which is he asked to find 11,7800 votes. that's what this is about. it's a giant racketeering case. and it is just unfortunate we're in the position of where the distraction is succeeding. he's throwing sand in the gears of the judicial system. howard: it's certainly not going to be heard before the election are, i feel confident saying that. merrick garland got hammered by house republicans in a hearing. this ate little peace -- in little piece involves congressman matt gaetz. >> the will the department of justice provide to the committee all correspondence and.com documents between bragg, willis and james' offices? >> the offices you're referring to are independent offices of state. howard: so, caroline, hay went

round and owned -- round on this because they're upset with merrick garland going after9 another cabinet if member for not turning over potential evidence they see about president biden. it made for great tv theater, but are they really going to hold merrick garland in contempt now? >> well, howie, it was merrick garland who instructed baden -- biden to exert executive privilege over those tapes. politics is ugly. it's very sad that norms have deterred so much that parties are resorting to the contempt process that garland is now under when someone doesn't comply with subpoena, but republicans would be imprudent not to maximize their advantage here and try to get these hur tapeses. because the american people deserve to know if they're about to elect somebody who has questionable mental acuity. you know, that very much is in their interest. it's about public transparticipant city, and democrats actually --

transparency, and democrats set this precedent with trump's tax records. after years of litigation, trump surrendered his ax return, and then the democratic-controlled committee published them right after the 20222 midterms. so both parties will use the cover of the law to get something for a political reason, and if democrats have nothing to hide in the hur tapes, why obstruct them? howard: merrick garland is famous for his monotone. he said the department of justice is not going to be intimidated. but as somebody who once covered, the the oj, you don't turn over information to the him without compromising every probe, otherwise every congressman under scrutiny would say i'm being treated unfairly, i want to see the files. >> correct. and on the hur tapes, look, this is about partisan shep. the whole transcript's online. you can go read it. the reason the tapes don't come out is you can hear i don't recall so you don't --

incriminate yourself. that's what you do. look, maybe we make a trade here where if we could have gotten campa rah rahs to see -- cameras to see donald trump full -- falling asleep in court, you could see the hur tape. howard: ininstances in which they say both hunter biden and james biden, the president's brother, lied before congress. this gets rather tangled. they like this approach because it involves joe biden but remember also that a key source of this committee was indicted for lying. caroline downey, tim hogan, thanks for joining u -- us. still to come, a secret clash that toppled "the washington post" editor and a bigtime espn host apologizes to kate-in clark. ♪ and see why pods has been trusted with over 6 million moves. don't wait, use promo code 25now to save.

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howard: the chaos and turmoil of the washington post keep getting deeper. first, owner jeff bezos decided he wanted to dump his editor after just three years. the extremely low-key sally buzbee without so much as a one line thank you for your service. the post lost $77 million last year, and the amazon founder's entitled to make a change. she wasn't interested in the shake-up. turns out she had clashed with the post's ceo, will lewis, over his role long ago in a british hacking scandal involving rupert murdoch tabloids. she said there would be a story on any ties to lewis who's always denied wrongdoing. lewis, the ceo, said that a wasn't newsworthy, that she was showing a lapse in judgment and hung up. sorry, the is subject of a news story doesn't get to dictate

whether it's worthy of publication. when a judge added lewis to the case, the post ran the story and that hastened buzbee's decision to leave. the new editor occupying the post will be robert wanette, all this creating a sense of whiplash. a at a con chen white house meeting, people are not reading your stuff, not an us a a pushes if debut. if. espn host pat mcafee, a former top nfl place, says he was trying to praise the rookie phenom when he referred to her as, quote, one white b-word for the indiana team who is a superstar. >> i was literally talking about how i hope that the wnba rain sports media and ex-wnba players would show a little bit more respect to caitlin clark for what she has brought if to the wn nba.

so, obviously, that's a massive f-up on my end. i did reach out to caitlin clark through the fever p if r, sent an apology and got a message back that she said it was all good. howard: come on, he had no choice. clark has been getting roughed-up including one flagrant knockdown that was basically an assault. mike freeman says mcafee apologized, quote, out of sheer panic and fear of being black bawled by clark and the league. meanwhile -- has become the first major or leaguer to be banned for life for betting on ball games since pete rose. the san diego padres' infielder placed bets worth $150,000 on the pittsburgh with pirates while he was on the team. s this is infamous of the -- reminiscent of the infamous back sox scandal a, and baseball needs to keep cracking down. after 441 -- 41 is seasons at wheel of fortune, pat sajak

has done his final spin. >> wheel of or fortune! [applause] >> i do know that somewhere along the line, we beam more than a popular show, we became more or -- part of popular culture. and more importantly, we became part of people's lives, and that's been awfully9 gratifying. howard: bravo. not that viewers weren't just as interested in vanna white's spinning. that a's it for this petition of "mediabuzz," i'm howard kurtz. subscribe to media buzz meter, we riff on the day's top five stories, and apple itunes, pretty good place to do it. we're back here next sunday, 11 eastern, with the only media a analysis show on national television. ♪ some people just know there's a better way to do things. and some people... don't. bundle your home and auto with allstate and save.

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